Where did the gold come from in the Bible?

Answer 1

Metals are, on the whole, reactive substances and combine with other materials in the earth's crust forming substances called 'ores'. Very reactive metals are more difficult to extract from their ores. As an example, aluminium (aluminum in the US) is so reactive it was unknown in any quantity as a pure metal until the 19th century as it requires vast quantities of electricity to extract it. Iron is much less reactive, and could be extracted from its ore by simple smelting (heating with carbon), a technique invented thousands of years ago - giving the 'iron age' its name. Bronze ( a mixture of copper and tin) is even easier to extract and was done even earlier - in the 'bronze age' of course. The most unreactive metals are metals like gold and silver - they hardly form any compounds in the earth's crust and only do so in the laboratory with great difficulty. Gold exists primarily in the earth's crust as the metal itself and not as an ore. Therefore, gold was known in really ancient times - firstly as it was unique as a pure metal and secondly because of its beauty and lustre. Therefore gold would have been known to the ancients, even the earliest Biblical characters, long before other metals were even discovered.